Mobile Application Outlook

If someone asks you about the fastest growing ecosystem today, then the answer comes in a blink. Yes, it is none other than the mobile application. No other thing has increased at such an enormous pace. Today, it is impossible to find out a single area where you don’t have a mobile app at your service. Be it gaming, social networking, financial transactions, banking, shopping, lifestyle, healthcare; the list is unending. The Smartphone has undoubtedly changed our world.

The reports published last year reveal that the online shopping niche has been captured by mobile phones. People preferred mobile apps to websites. Incredible, isn’t it? Experts say that the industry shows a phenomenal, promising future. It is needless to say that the upcoming years will be further happening.

When you want to take advantage of this flourishing market, it is important to know where the mobile market will reach after five years down the line. If we look at the reports, some interesting facts pop up.

2015 was the most lucrative year from the point of view of mobile industry. It clocked the highest growth rates.

It is expected that around one-fourth of the growth will be contributed by mobile apps in the coming years.

At the end of the year 2020, the app market is expected to cross the 100 Billion Dollar milestone.

Gaming is the biggest shareholder today with an impressive 85% chunk of the total revenue. However, experts think that the contribution in 2020 will not be more than 75% because there will be a big surge in other domains.

It is assumed that dating, video streaming, and shopping will contribute more in the coming times.

China will continue to lead the mobile app market in the coming years but it will have a big challenge from another promising market i.e. India.

The biggest revenue contributors will be the US, China, and Japan. The biggest emerging markets will be India, Indonesia and Argentina. Mexico will be a promising market.

All these facts indicate that mobile app will be the revenue driver in the next five years at least.

Mobile app downloading: a review

If you look at an important part of Mobile App market i.e. downloading, then the scenario is quite exciting. There is a gradual rise in the number of downloads year after year. The Generation Next is crazy about mobile apps. Across the globe, millions of downloads happen daily. Gaming is obviously the most favored category. Here are some interesting figures:

It is estimated that around 50 Billion downloads of gaming apps happened in the year 2015 which is an enormous number.

Experts feel that by the year 2020, non-gaming apps such as entertainment, shopping, media and music will mark a significant increase. The expected increase is around 25% from their existing figures.

Developed markets still drive the mobile app download market. However, other promising economies such as India and Indonesia are making their position stronger and stronger. In India, there has been a major drop in the Smartphone prices recently. Thus, they are in the reach of the lower-middle class. Since it is a huge market, the growth rate of downloads in India may surprise experts by the end of 2020.

According to reports, people spent more than 60 percent of their mobile active time in downloading which is the first time in the history of mobile apps. People spent maximum time in video and media categories. Shopping and travel also showed quite an impressive increase.

Segmentation of mobile app market

If you ask mobile app experts, then the major segmentation of the mobile market is in three categories: type of application, type of store and type of geographic location. As far as applications are concerned, you can segment it further into categories such as travel, lifestyle, navigation, utility, e-reading, social networking and so on.

If we think from the store perspective, then native store and third-party store are two bifurcations. By third party store, we mean stores managed by operating system developers or operators. Even mobile device manufacturers also come in the same category.

Bifurcation from the perspective of geography is; Asia-Pacific, Middle East, Africa, Western Europe, Japan, Latin America, etc. All these geographies are unique in the usage pattern and preference of apps. Therefore, a mobile app developer will have to develop segmented marketing programs to attract people from different countries.

Conclusion

On the basis of the insights mentioned above, it is evident that the digital media is going to have a great reliance on mobile apps. Whether you own a small-scale business or a big brand, it is inevitable to have the centralized focus on mobile apps. Experts feel that in future, perhaps mobile phone will be the main device for accessing the Internet. In such a scenario, a mobile app will be the biggest revenue driver.

It is meaningless to create a mobile app that nobody knows (or a handful of the people know). When you create an app, it should attract a large audience. Therefore, digital media marketing will also increase in the same proportion by the year 2020. Applications that will use the right marketing strategy will be able to reap big business.

Application stores enjoy the best benefit from the excitement of people about mobile apps. The rapidly growing Smartphone market adds further fuel to the fire. As more and more people become familiar with mobile apps and their usage, the upsurge will increase with a roaring speed.

As Android captures the majority of the market leaving competitors such as BlackBerry or Apple far behind, the life of app developers becomes easy. They can concentrate on adding features to the existing apps or develop new apps for Android platform only. Open source platform, easy to develop applications and better compatibility are the secrets of success of Android.

Hence, it is the right time to not only understand the significance of mobile app but to leverage the same for business enhancement.